J.B. Danquah

Joseph Kwame Kyeretwi Boakye Danquah (21 December 1895-4 February 1965) was a Ghanaian nationalist leader in the British Gold Coast colony.

Biography
J.B. Danquah was born in Bepong, Gold Coast on 21 December 1895, and he became a law clerk at 17 and then secretary fo his brother, a tribal chief. He studied law at the University of London from 1921, and in 1926 qualified as a lawyer at the English Bar. In 1927, upon completion of his doctoral thesis, he returned to the Gold Coast to establish a law practice. In 1931, he set up a daily newspaper, the Times of West Africa, which gained immense popular influence and established him as a moderate leader of the nationalist movement for independence. He was elected to the Legislative Council in 1946, and in 1947 founded the colony's first political party, the United Gold Coast convention, offering Kwame Nkrumah the post of General Secretary. He was imprisoned for incitement to violence in 1948, but he became a leading figure in constitutional negotiations from 1949. He also became increasingly hostile to Nkrumah, and he failed to be elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1954 and 1956. He was imprisoned from 1961 to 1962 and again in 1964 for criticism of Nkrumah's dictatorial methods. He died in prison in 1965.